The Google Pixel Buds Pro aren’t supposed to start shipping until July 28, but one lucky buyer who pre-ordered the wireless earbuds this week has already received their new gadget through the post — and that gives the rest an early glimpse of what’s on offer.
Reddit user Linkakox posted a thread (Opens in a new tab) (via 9to5Google (Opens in a new tab)) on their first impressions of the earbuds, including what the sound quality looks like and what you get in the box. There are also plenty of pictures for you to take.
The good news is that according to Linkakox at least, the sound quality when listening to music is an improvement over that of the cheaper Google Pixel Buds A-Series. Active noise cancellation and it works “well” too, apparently.
Bring your own cable
The new Transparency mode on Pixel Buds Pro, which enables ambient sound — useful when talking to someone, or crossing the street for example — also works as announced by Google, according to this early and unverified review.
What you don’t get in the box is any kind of charging method, not even a USB cable, so you’ll have to arrange that yourself. It also appears that the Pixel Buds app still needs to be updated to accommodate all the features offered by the Pro earbuds.
Pre-orders will officially ship on July 28, and the Pixel Buds Pro will also be available to buy from the Google Store and other retailers on that date as well. Stay tuned for our full, detailed review of these new wireless earbuds from Google at $199 / £179 / AU$299.
Analysis: The real competitors to AirPods Pro?
Apple has of course been a hit with its AirPods and AirPods Pro, and most other manufacturers have now jumped to the cart to try and grab a slice of the market. Samsung is one of them, and the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is expected to launch next month.
The original Google Pixel Buds launched in 2020, and the more affordable A-Series variants we already mentioned followed. With the new earbuds, Google is once again hoping to offer some serious competition to the AirPods range.
There’s a lot more AirPods do with iPhone that Google can do on Android, including super-fast pairing and a dedicated app. You also get multipoint technology, so the earbuds stay connected to many different devices at once.
While this early look at the Google Pixel Buds Pro is certainly interesting, we’ll need to spend some serious time with these wireless earbuds ourselves to see if they’re worth the money Google is asking — and whether or not they can even entice people who want to buy AirPods .